SAGINAW, MI — Police did not violate constitutional search and seizure laws when they seized a firearm and extended magazine from the vehicle driven by the man charged in the May homicide of Michael Kuhlman, a judge has ruled.

West, 24, is charged with felony murder and 11 other felonies in the May 30 homicide of the 36-year-old Kuhlman at Kuhlman's home, 2555 Luella off Weiss near Hemmeter, where Kuhlman and eight others were participating in a high stakes poker game.

His trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday.

West's attorney, Barbara Klimaszewski, claimed in the motion that officers violated West's Fourth Amendment rights by searching his vehicle, a 1998 Chevrolet Blazer, without a warrant. The search led Detective Robert Bean and Officer Kevin Gloude to a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, a 30-round magazine, and 12 prescription Adderall pills, they testified Thursday.

Borchard heard testimony from Bean, Gloude, and Detective Sgt. Jack Doyle. Their testimony was similar to their testimony during West's preliminary hearing last year.

After stopping West on Interstate 675, officers placed him under arrest, Doyle testified.

Bean testified that he began to conduct an inventory search on the Blazer and placed both knees on the driver's seat. He reached for the center console to support his body, and the console was “loose,” he said.

Bean then lifted the console slightly and saw the magazine underneath, he testified. Bean then was told to stop the inventory search because the vehicle was going to be towed back to the police department, he testified.

At the police department, Bean and Gloude continued the search, which included seizing the magazine. Gloude then saw a plastic baggie protruding from the plastic ceiling fixture holding “map lights,” he said. He pulled the plastic, which was “not completely snapped” to the ceiling, and pulled out the bag, which had the Adderall pills, Gloude testified.

As a result of the magazine and pills being found in unusual locations in the vehicle, Gloude “started searching more thoroughly,” he said. The officer flipped down the glove box, which allows whoever performs the action “complete access into the dash,” he said. With the inside of the dash exposed, Gloude saw the handgun “stuffed up in it,” he testified.

The gun had six bullets in the magazine and one in the gun's chamber, Gloude testified.

Testimony from West's preliminary hearing showed that the gun fired seven 9mm shell casings found at the scene.

In arguing against West's motion, Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Jon Sahli said he agreed with Klimaszewski's initially assessment that the officers' search exceeded that of an inventory search. It was the “inadvertent” discovery of the magazine and the finding of the pills, Sahli argued, that established “significant probable cause” to continue without a warrant.

Klimaszewski argued that because West was already in custody and thus no longer in control of the vehicle and unable to hide or move the evidence, the officers needed a warrant.

Borchard disagreed with Kilmaszewski, though, stating that both searched — Bean's while the vehicle still was on I-675 and the one at the police department — were proper because the finding of the magazine and pills established probable cause.

Testimony from West's preliminary hearing showed that just before 1 a.m. May 30, the nine players, including Kuhlman, heard loud banging on the front door. Kuhlman went to the door, and quickly realized he and the others were being robbed and said as much, witnesses said.

The exact details of the incident varied some between the witnesses, but they all testified that they heard at least one gunshot fired through the door. The poker players scurried — some, like John Allen, running to the home's backyard, and others jumping behind a couch and hiding.

Allen, who ran away through the backyard, testified that he was shot in the lower right back as he ran.

Prosecutors initially charged West with assault with intent to murder Allen, first-degree home invasion, nine counts of armed robbery, single counts of conspiring to commit first-degree home invasion and armed robbery, and nine firearm offenses.

Sahli said Thursday that he dropped eight of the armed robbery counts — against the rest of the poker players — as well as charges of carrying a concealed weapon, receiving and concealing a stolen firearm, and the accompanying felony firearm charge.

The felony murder charge, which means somebody was killed during the commission of a specified felony, carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In addition to his suppression ruling, Borchard denied West's motion to “quash,” or dismiss, the charges. Klimaszewski argued the charges should be dismissed because of a lack of identification of West as the shooter, the judge said, but Borchard said enough circumstantial evidence existed for probable cause and thus a trial.

The judge on Monday granted Klimaszewski's request for an expert witness to examine fingerprints that state police experts have testified West left on a door leading to the backyard of Kuhlman's house and on the handgun. Borchard approved up to $1,600 to be spent for the analysis, which does not include paying the expert to testify regarding the findings.